Chapter Twenty-One: Truth Hurts
Sorry it took me all day to update, but I just got a job at a place I've wanted to work at for years! So I finally worked up the courage to apply and they hired me! So I work weekends now. This means that update day has now been moved to Monday. So today is probably the last Sunday you'll hear from me unless something comes up. I want a shirt just like Hakkai's. That's an original thought people! I came up with it. Okay enjoy!
Yuki made Kira comfortable on his bed. She had not woken up yet, and he began to worry. He gently brushed her hair from her face and held her hand. Kudo and Kakei had left but Ananzi stayed. Yuki imagined that he was curious about if Kira would remember. Yuki had to admit, he was dieing from curiosity himself. He also began to wonder if anyone at school had noticed he'd gone.
In fact lots of people had noticed that he was absent, and most of them had seen him leave with Kira. When Hatsuharu heard this he was furious. However, instead of taking his anger out on the classroom, he held Black Haru in until after class so he could show Kira and Yuki his full rage at the currant situation.
Yuki was growing tired from waiting for Kira to wake up. But he didn't want to leave Kira's side, just in case she woke up. Her eyes fluttered open and Yuki stood up.
"Kira! Are you okay?" he asked. She seemed confused at first. Then her eyes softened and she smiled at him.
"Yes." She slowly sat up and held her head in pain. "All of that, we forgot all of that." Yuki nodded. "Would you…please go I, uh, I need to be alone, for a minute." Yuki nodded silently and closed the door to his room.
"I guess I might as well go back to school." He said to himself and left. Kira stared at her ungloved hands. She followed the pattern of the intertwining marks. Her leash, her branding, her burden. She replayed the memory of her mother over and over again, until she finally broke down and wept at the thought of her dead mother. She wiped her tears away quickly and walked outside the door. "I know you're there Ananzi, come out." She said and without delay the spider god stepped out from his hiding place into the open.
"How do you feel kitten?" he asked.
"Like I saw something I wasn't supposed too."
"By whose definition?"
"Regardless, Akito will be angry when he finds out."
"He doesn't have to know." Ananzi advised. Kira gave him a sharp gaze.
"Why?" she asked.
"He could hurt someone."
"That's not what I meant!" she shouted. He looked up from his hands, which he'd been staring at the whole time, and sighed.
"I know what you meant."
"You have such great connections! Why didn't you get me to remember this sooner?" Ananzi took out a cigarette and started to smoke it.
"When would I have had you remember it? It wouldn't have done me much good for you to remember someone who wasn't even in your life until now."
"Why did you make me runaway?" she asked calming a bit.
"I thought you'd have gotten it by now. You are a pawn, Kira. I wanted to have Akito owe me, should I need his services. I set out the train ticket and map to the Sohma house, knowing that you'd go there and find Yuki, a boy so torn up and lonely that he would jump at any chance to escape. Then you both ran away, I gave Yuki back and I get a favor when I need it." He explained cruelly. Kira was almost shocked at how blunt he was.
"But my memories…" she said feeling a lump rise in her throat again.
"Humph…yes that was a pain. But what do I care, as long as I got what I wanted out of it."
"But they're my memories!" she shouted, "You have no right to take them from me!" at this Ananzi's eyes grew cold and cruel. He extended one arm towards Kira and began to slowly close his fist as if squeezing an invisible ball. Kira screamed in utter pain and fell to the ground. Her heart felt like the life was being wringed from it. She couldn't breath! Her lungs were being compressed and it felt like every organ in her body was being squished. She struggled for breath and looked into the cruel eyes of the spider god. He didn't smile; he wore a face of pure superiority.
"Remember this kitten, I own you! I have every right to mistreat you and bully you and make you as miserable as I want to! This is your price, your punishment, accept it." He detached his grip from her and Kira gulped in air, and immediately felt her organs inflate again. "Next time I might not be so nice. Don't ever take that tone with me again." He ordered. Kira nodded clutching her throat. "Besides," he said smiling once more and walking down the stairs towards the front door, "it takes the rain to make you appreciate the sun. Someday you're going to thank me for all the things I've done for you." Kira still breathed heavily but found the strength to speak.
"Wait!" she asked. Ananzi stopped. "That young man, Kudo, where is he I need to talk to him." She breathed.
"I imagine that they're taking care of some business while they're here, so they're probably staying somewhere. I'll be sure to send them a thank you note for you." Ananzi said and continued out the door.
Kira didn't want to go to school. There was too much of a risk of running into Yuki. She sat on the couch in the living room. She had put her gloves on but she still could not turn away from her hands. Then Hatsuharu burst through the front door, out of breath and looking quite flustered.
"You! I want to have a word with you!" he yelled. "What is going on between you and Yuki? I demand an answer!" Kira stood up and rested her head on Haru's chest, careful not to embrace him. She thought about her mother, she thought about the memory she'd lost, and it made her cry. Haru was taken back. "Kira…what-" Haru started.
"Shut up!" she sobbed. "Just shut up and let me cry here for a minute. Please?" she asked. Haru's anger disintegrated, and he started to stroke her hair caringly.
"Okay." He agreed and let Kira weep into his chest. Later, Kira explained why she had been crying. The memory and everything that happened between her and Yuki, Haru was nothing short of speechless.
"Why did it make you cry so hard?" he asked when he recovered from the shock.
"I saw her, my mother, so vividly. Usually when I think about her I have trouble piecing things together, she looks too young or too old. Her voice was sweeter or softer or something. But this…this was her, in exact preservation. I haven't seen my mother for two years and I saw her so clearly, so alive and beautiful. She was out of my reach." Kira began to cry again. Hatsuharu handed her a Kleenex and she dried her eyes. "I'm never going to see her like that again. But I'll get over that. What I'm worried about now is how I'm supposed to act around Yuki." She admitted.
"I'm sorry that I jumped to conclusions. I acted stupid, and immature." Haru apologized.
"Yes you did." Kira said bluntly. Haru looked up at her. "But I accept your apology." She smiled and he smiled back at her and they sat there for a while until Kira finally managed to convince him that she was okay and he could leave. He told her that if she needed to talk all she had to do was call him. She decided to go and talk to Akito. What she would say to him, she had no idea. Before she left she cleaned herself up and changed out of her school uniform into a green, plaid, pleated skirt. She put on a black tube top and matching knee-high boots, with of course her gloves. She fixed her hair and took a long deep breath, before leaving to the main house.
On her way to the main house, however, Kira ran into someone she wasn't expecting to see. "Hakkai!" she shouted to her younger brother. He wasn't even in his school uniform; instead he wore torn up jeans and a black T-shirt that read, "If silence is golden then talk is cheap." He jumped at the sound of his sister's voice then calmed.
"Hey Kira. What's up?" he asked.
"Don't 'what's up' me! Shouldn't you be in school?" she scorned.
"Shouldn't you?" He asked. Kira was taken aback.
"Why are you here and not school?"
"I just didn't feel like going. Besides, my grades are so good I could teach the class, one day won't kill my education."
"That's not the point, Hakkai. You shouldn't skip. Does your dad know?" Hakkai shook his head.
"No, he thinks I'm in school. Why aren't you in school?"
"Something came up." She said.
"Like what?" Kira sat him on a bench nearby and told him the whole story. He listened carefully. "Where are you going now?"
"I'm going to go tell Akito." At this Hakkai immediately stood up in anger and shock.
"WHY!" he shouted.
"Please Hakkai, don't make a big deal out of it."
"How can I not make a big deal out of this? Why are you going?" he yelled. Kira remained calm.
"He needs to know, it was his choice to have my memories suppressed. If he wants them that way again then that's what has to happen." She looked shamefully at the ground. Hakkai, although not calming, relaxed.
"It's because you want to forget." He stated. Kira looked up at him shocked.
"No! Of course not." She denied.
"If you tell him, he'll not only suppress the memory of Yuki, but also the Sohma's. You'll forget all of them and then move away."
"That might happen, but what makes you think I want it to?"
"You're still holding onto what your dad told you. You still think no one can love you. So you act cold and cruel, so that no one will talk to you. This time someone didn't buy it, you let someone in, and you're afraid."
"You don't know what you're talking about!" she yelled standing and starting to walk away. Hakkai followed her.
"You're afraid that you're going to get hurt, so you want to forget and leave so it doesn't happen! You want to shut out the world and hide!" Kira quickened her pace. She couldn't listen to this. Not now, not from Hakkai. "You act like a heartless evil woman, when in reality you're a scared little girl trapping herself behind walls so she doesn't have to deal with anything!"
"Shut up Hakkai! I maybe acting like a child but at least I can admit it!" she stopped in her tracks and turned to shout at her brother. "You act so damn high and mighty, like you're an adult! Why don't you quit telling me how to live my life and start focusing on your own!"
"You're one to talk! You're always telling me what to do!"
"Do you think I wanted a little brother to take care of all my life!" Hakkai took a minute to let what was just said to sink in.
"Then I'll leave." He ran off in the other direction, and Kira leaned up against the wall. She began to cry and slid down into a crouched position. "I just want to be left alone! I want everyone to leave me alone." She sobbed.
I've just found out that I had the entire story on the net all day! This means that for a total of almost 24 hours the ending was revealed! I was a little angry that no one told me this, but I'm sure you guys had your reasons. If anyone did read the ending, please don't tell anyone! Please! Then again, maybe no one read it. I'd like to thank Tainted Angel, FoxLuvr, Kamu-san, Nyrocat, Hyper-writer14, cemeterydemon, pyro-fire-love, Kyae Sohma, Lucy (I just seem to love those cliff hangers don't I ;) Seriously there are more cliffhangers than I remember writing.), and last but defiantly defiantly DEFINATLY not least Angel of Mercy (Alls fair in love war and Fan Fiction. I love how you put that! Ha, ha, ha! OMG! I never noticed that! Wow. I don't know why, it just turned out that way.) for reviewing. You guys are my drive, keep em' coming! BTW, this story is now on a community for OC characters. It seems like a hate community, but in any case if you like OC stories you guys should check it out. I feel kinda weird that the first community this was put on wassomething anti-OC but to each his own. Besides, I know you guys like this story right?Love and Huggles!
Pyra